![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Shelley-Thayer-SPCA-Floridas-executive-director.webp?resize=210%2C241&ssl=1\")
\u201cThis year, we\u2019re looking for 90%, which is a no-kill status in the nation,\u201d said Shelley Thayer, SPCA Florida\u2019s executive director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thayer said it was just seven years ago when the live release rate in all of Polk County Animal Control was just 40%, one of the worst in the nation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n SPCA Florida is a no-kill shelter and can turn away animals when it reaches staff and kennel capacity, unlike Polk County Animal Control, which is run by the sheriff\u2019s office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnimal Control is in the same situation except they cannot say no. Their [situation] is much worse than ours,\u201d Thayer said. \u201cWhen they run out of room, they are out of room and then they have no choice but to create room.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRescue Pets alone adopted out 814 cats for us, and the SPCA was right there too with 650 cats and 244 dogs adopted. The Bully Project helped rescue 400 dogs. Heading into the new year, we hope to improve upon those adoption and rescue rates even more,\u201d a sheriff\u2019s office spokesperson said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SPCA Florida has worked with Polk County Animal Control on spay and neuter and adoption programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cat lounges across central Florida have also been used to find forever homes for cats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thayer said county organizations and animal control are utilizing technology as one way to alleviate overcrowding at the shelters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They are all using Petco\u2019s \u201cLost Lost\u201d online database to reunite lost pets with their owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt does facial identification, kind of like the FBI. It picks up NextDoor, RING, and Facebook posts, as long as there\u2019s a picture of the face,\u201d Thayer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Adoptions at Polk County Animal Control are free every Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SPCA Florida currently has 350 cats and dogs in its shelter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is open seven days a week for adoptions at 5850 Brannen Rd. S in Lakeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All animals are vaccinated, spayed, and neutered and receive dental care, if needed, before going up for adoption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To learn more about adoptable pets and services at Polk County Animal Control, visit https:\/\/www.polksheriff.org\/animal-services<\/a> and https:\/\/www.polksheriff.org\/animal-services\/adoptable-pets<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 80% of animals in county shelters were released alive, which is a continuation of improvements over the last few years, according to the SPCA Florida. \u201cThis year, we\u2019re looking for 90%,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDFcL1NoZWxsZXktVGhheWVyLVNQQ0EtRmxvcmlkYXMtZXhlY3V0aXZlLWRpcmVjdG9yLndlYnA_Zml0PTIxMCUyQzI0MSZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IktpbGwsIEtpbGwsIEtpbGwgb3ZlciA0MDAgQW5pbWFscyBkZWFkIGluIERlY2VtYmVyICYjODIxMTsgQW5pbWFsIGFkdm9jYXRlcyBhaW0gZm9yIFBvbGsgQ291bnR5IEFuaW1hbCBDb250cm9sIHRvIGJlIGEgbm8ta2lsbCBjb3VudHkgaW4gMjAyNSIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.fLAGXvfGVyFpCDs79Q7Vb9q5styCx1ZWktm8HqtqUuYMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":53087,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Shelley-Thayer-SPCA-Floridas-executive-director.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[10645,10646],"class_list":["post-53086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-kill","tag-kill-over-400-animals-dead-in-december-animal-advocates-aim-for-polk-county-animal-control-to-be-a-no-kill-county-in-2025"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53086"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53088,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53086\/revisions\/53088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}